[Correspondence] Surgical surveillance in resource-poor settings

We congratulate the African Surgical Outcomes Study team, led by investigators from low-income and middle-income countries, for quantifying the scale of global inequality in surgical care, and for providing measurable goals for future improvement efforts (April 21, p 1589).1 This work also highlights the poor availability of the detailed information necessary to translate these inequalities into potential solutions.2,3 Continuous surveillance systems or registries could provide such information but are notoriously challenging; disparate paper-based systems, inadequate resources, and overburdened staff are seemingly insurmountable problems.